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Integrating digital libraries and VLEs in higher & further education

Project partners

The relationship between project partners proved an interesting topic for the evaluation of the DiVLE projects. Some partners were only nominally involved in projects, others had a close working relationship with project team members. In two instances projects report that concentrated input from an expert partner for a period of only one or two days has been instrumental in clarifying difficult issues and moving the project forward.

• Vendors - Because some vendor products were also in the development stage, there was a definite feeling of "learning together" in some partnerships and mutually beneficial arrangements developed. The involvement of vendors on Steering Groups, for example, can provide a fast route to information about the product and good advice. Problems can arise however and more than one project found their vendor to be "inflexible and reluctant to allow us to customize their product". One project was hampered by misunderstandings about what the product could deliver, and reported learning that "promises made by vendors are not always to be trusted".
• Inter-university - Partnerships between universities revealed cultural differences which required an "adjustment in approach". For example, in some institutions computing services are fully committed to experimental developments, in others they operate as services with a primary role of delivery to internal customers. The latter approach can create difficulties, for example with firewalls designed to prevent external access to learning systems or other development activities. More subtly, different institutions operate in markedly different ways - some, for example, being much more "managerial" than others - and this creates tensions for joint development teams which may have to reconcile very different decision making processes (a problem exacerbated when relationships between universities/colleges and commercial firms are considered).

A further issue is related to reporting lines and accountability. An "experimental/developmental" reporting line, in this case to JISC or the Project Director, and a separate "development of university services" reporting line to a Head of Service or Pro-Vice Chancellor can arise. There have been issues too when assumptions have been made that pedagogic practices are common across different universities. When what is being tested is the transferability of project outputs across different universities and different VLE platforms it is essential that robust methodologies to facilitate transfer are explored and agreed at an early stage. A final example occurs where the outcome of the project will be a new system or service which impacts on staff workloads and responsibilities - it is one thing for staff to work flexibly to enable a concept to be proved, quite another to accept permanent changes to their jobs.

Additional Resources

Forthcoming..... contributions gratefully received